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The Jersey Devil/Background Information
| }} /Credits|Credits}} /Gallery|Gallery}} /Transcript|Transcript}} /Background Information|Background Information}} }} Production *Chris Carter's writing of this episode proceeded from real-life reports of the , although Carter made significant changes to such depictions of the legendary beast. Another starting point was an essay by concerning, in Carter's words, "evolution and de-evolution." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 26/27, No. 6/1, p. 25) Carter recollected, "He had written a story that posed the question of whether or not man is hellbent on his own extinction." (X-Files Confidential, p. 43) *Chris Carter wanted to focus this episode on an evolutionary relic, rather than a generic hairy creature. He noted, "The idea was not to make this a monster per se, but almost a missing link." ( , p. 110) Carter further explained, "I wanted to say, 'What happens if there was some sort of genetic snafu that could actually send us tumbling backwards, where to survive we would actually have to revert to our old ways?' So I wanted this idea that there could be somebody living out there who was either a reversion or who would never have evolved to our point, and really was a simpler, and in a way, more complete human being. We tend to be tough, but when they call us top of the food chain, top grazers, and we end up using a lot of energy on Earth, ... maybe that will be our downfall. So it was certainly an exploration of that." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 26/27, No. 6/1, p. 25) *Placing the story in Atlantic City physically echoed the thematic concerns expressed herein by Chris Carter, who had been to the city and was very well acquainted with it. "It ... seemed to be an interesting place to put a de-evolved, or a less evolved character," he stated, "because Atlantic City almost represents the decay of Western Civilization." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 26/27, No. 6/1, p. 25) *According to Chris Carter, the reasoning for the scenes in which Scully meets her best friend Ellen and discusses the possibility of dating Mulder was "to show the life she's passing on. I just wanted to open up Scully a little bit for the audience." ( , pp. 110-111) Carter elaborated, "That was a little bit of experimentation. I wanted people to see that Scully had a feminine side, but also I wanted to play that against Mulder, how she felt about Mulder having his work .... So it was a little bit of a chance to give the character some dimension. And I think for a lot of women, the 'man's world' is much more interesting than a 'woman's world. " (Cinefantastique, Vol. 26/27, No. 6/1, p. 25) Scully's date with Rob in this outing was motivated by the efforts that were being made to give her a life outside the FBI. "We tried to develop a love interest for Scully only to heighten the sexual tension between her and Mulder," Carter disclosed. (The Complete X-Files: Behind the Series, the Myths and the Movies, p. 40) *This episode's script went through three drafts. These were dated 11th, 18th and 19th August 1993. *One requirement for the urban setting of this episode was an assembly of buildings where the Jersey Devil woman could leap from rooftop to rooftop. "We proposed Station Street," noted Louisa Gradnitzer. The exterior vacant buildings where the female hunts for food were consequently filmed around 900-Block Station Street in Vancouver, as were shots for the PD parking lot and the restaurant where Rob and Scully meet for a date. (X Marks the Spot (On Location with The X-Files), pp. 34-35) *The New Jersey woods were depicted with Seymour Demonstration Forest, in North Vancouver. (X Marks the Spot (On Location with The X-Files), p. 35) *It was decided that the episode's location filming would additionally include the interior of the townhouse, as well as the restaurant and Rob's office. "All three of these locations were scheduled for one day of shooting," recalled Louisa Gradnitzer. "Luckily, we found a mansion diverse enough to make this grouping possible." The mansion was located at 1451 Angus Drive, Vancouver, and its dining room was converted into the restaurant. The mansion's den became Rob's office and the building's kitchen was filmed as a kitchen. (X Marks the Spot (On Location with The X-Files), p. 35) *The abandoned warehouse in which Mulder catches up with the Jersey Devil woman was an actually abandoned warehouse near The X-Files studio at Molson Brewery, Kitsilano. (TV Zone, issue 80, p. 20; X Marks the Spot (On Location with The X-Files), p. 53) *Creating the look of the Jersey Devil required efforts from the hair, makeup and wardrobe departments. (X Marks the Spot (On Location with The X-Files), p. 34) Claire Stansfield felt thankful for the work these personnel invested in the installment. (TV Zone Special #21, p. 24) *Joe Napolitano initially complained, during preproduction on this episode, about the lack of , as hiring such personnel for The X-Files was not permitted at this point. (X Marks the Spot (On Location with The X-Files), p. 35) *One challenge this episode presented Joe Napolitano was trying to depict the Jersey Devil woman as naked without showing excessive nudity. "It was very tricky and complicated to design and film the shots she appeared in," the director conceded. "We had to make sure that viewers could catch a glimpse, enough of her to know that she's naked, and yet not really reveal that she's naked." (TV Zone, issue 80, pp. 19-20) *"The Jersey Devil" required much filming. "That was a difficult show because it was the death of a thousand cuts," R.W. Goodwin laughed. "To make that work, it required so much shooting, so much film at different angles." (X-Files Confidential, p. 44) *While the shooting company was filming at 900-Block Station Street, the owners of the scrap metal shop Atlantic Sheet Metals – who owned most of the block – positioned lawn chairs outside their shop, being very accommodating towards the cast and crew. (X Marks the Spot (On Location with The X-Files), p. 35) *During the episode's production, two daily visitors to the set were Chris Carter and Claire Stansfield's mother. With Carter and Duchovny having become friends by this point, Claire Stansfield – as a friend of Duchovny's – also got to know Carter. Stansfield gleefully enjoyed being on a set with Carter, Duchovny and her own mother. ( , p. 9) "I also have to thank the make-up girl for being right there with a robe after we finished every shot," Stansfield reminisced. (TV Zone Special #21, p. 24) *Among the goings-on during this episode's shoot was the fact that Claire Stansfield's stunt double, who was actually a stripper, refused to wear any clothes. ( , p. 9) "She was not at all uncomfortable about sitting around in her G-string," Stansfield laughed. (TV Zone Special #21, p. 24) "They had a naked woman running around the set, so people were pretty thrilled," said Glen Morgan, smiling. (X-Files Confidential, p. 44) *Claire Stanfield's stunt double performed only one stunt in this installment, which was a climb over a fence filmed at the beginning of the shoot. Stansfield begged to be permitted to do the stunt herself but, whereas her stunt double was replaceable if injured, Stansfield wasn't. ( , p. 9) Essentially, the requirement of a stuntwoman's involvement was, in Stansfield's words, "because of union rules." (TV Zone Special #21, p. 24) *The filming of the scene in which several law enforcement officers, including Mulder and Scully, track the Jersey Devil woman through an abandoned warehouse was designed with the scene's surroundings in mind, since Joe Napolitano considered the building where the scene was shot "an interesting find." He explained, "We knew what we wanted to accomplish from A to Z but getting there was dictated somewhat by the location and how interesting it was." (TV Guide, issue 80, p. 20) *The look of the room in which Mulder has a close encounter with the woman tasked Joe Napolitano with two main difficulties. He recalled, "I wanted to go with an extremely stylized look in the room .... Again, I had to conceal her nudity as well as make the scene very dark and spooky. We actually cut a big hole in the wall, put a fan in it and blasted some big lights through that, making this the only light source in the whole room. It was kind of an interesting way to solve two problems." Napolitano thought the solution was very successful, such as by "concealing as much nudity as we could." (TV Guide, issue 80, p. 20) *The stunts which were done by Claire Stansfield included the Jersey Devil's tussle with Mulder. Considering she wore a virtually non-existent costume in her role as the Jersey Devil, she was particularly pleased to have a good friend performing opposite her in that scene, with whom she did not feel uncomfortable. ( , pp. 9-10) Stansfield specified that, despite how it may look on screen, she and David Duchovny were not about to start having sex with each other. "We spent most of that scene just laughing," remembered the actress, "because we had to stay in the same position for 20 minutes." (TV Zone Special #21, p. 24) *Nudity was a delicate matter during filming in Seymour Demonstration Forest, as the forest was a publicly open area. (X Marks the Spot (On Location with The X-Files), p. 35) R.W. Goodwin, however, was left with the impression it was not open to the public, due to it being a preserve. (X-Files Confidential, p. 44) *At one point, the production unit needed more footage in Seymour Demonstration Forest, depicting the Jersey Devil woman stalking Mulder while he's walking through the forest. R.W. Goodwin recollected, "I was sent off into the woods with a second unit and a six-foot-tall naked woman to do this filming .... I get to the gate and my two sons, who are at that time twelve and eight, are with me that day. I said, 'Come on, guys, we're going to shoot some film of the big, tall naked lady.' We get to the gate and the guard won't let the kids in because they're not covered for liability insurance. He said the kids were going to have to wait in the parking lot several miles from where we were shooting, and then he said, 'You don't want them in there, anyway, because we've had several mountain lion attacks over the last week and it was just spotted a half a mile down the road.' I said, 'You want me to leave my two kids standing in a parking lot, telling me that there are mountain lions half a mile down the road?' They wouldn't let them go, so I'm up there, and I should have been having the time of my life with this naked lady, and all I can think about is how my two little boys are stuck at the gate, about to be mauled by a mountain lion." (X-Files Confidential, p. 44) *The production crew encountered a problem while finishing their work in the mansion used as a filming location for this episode; they had to observe a municipal curfew, imposed between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. Related Louisa Gradnitzer, "At 10:30 p.m. wrap was called and it was obvious that the set could not be struck dismantled by 11:00 p.m. Everyone walked away from set, and the following day wrap was completed." (X Marks the Spot (On Location with The X-Files), p. 35) *A shot supposed to be set in an Atlantic City casino actually involved filming blue-screen footage of David Duchovny, before stock casino footage was matted in. This was considerably less expensive than a location shoot in New Jersey would have cost. ( , p. 110) Trivia *The character Dr. Diamond may have been named after Jared Diamond, a famed anthropologist who theorized that the first wide-scale genocide was of the Neanderthals. *The woodwind tune often played in the background was incorporated into "Trader's life" in the Fallout OST Reception *Chris Carter was very enthusiastic about this entry into the canon of The X-Files. He thought his idea of a primitive human in the New Jersey woods was "curious." (X-Files Confidential, pp. 43-44) "I think the episode was very well directed, and I think it was a little different approach for us," Carter observed. "It was a little more poetic and didn't have the 'boo', which is the big effect or the big scare. I also think it further established the relationship between Mulder and Scully, and expanded the idea of what an X-File is and where it can take place." (X-Files Confidential, p. 44) *Joe Napolitano was highly proud of the appearance of the room where Mulder and the Jersey Devil woman meet. "We were able to give it a very nice, stylized look," he enthused, "with that flickering effect from the turning fan keeping it spooky." (TV Zone, issue 80, p. 20) *Glen Morgan once expressed this installment was "beautifully shot" and "started off great." However, Morgan also felt its narrative "didn't go anywhere" in the middle, the story lacking enough complications. (X-Files Confidential, p. 44) *This episode achieved a Nielsen household rating of 6.6, with an audience share of 12. This means that roughly 6.6 percent of all television-equipped households, and 12 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 6.2 million households. ( , p. 248) *''Cinefantastique'' (Vol. 26/27, No. 6/1, p. 25) scores this episode 2 and a half out of 4 stars. The magazine comments, " Jersey Devil' is an average episode, yet it has many wonderful moments, particularly the confrontation between Mulder and the Beast Woman, both filled with curiosity and fear, and Scully's sarcastic ripostes to Mulder's seemingly nutty theories." *In his reference book , writer Robert Shearman rated this episode 1 out of 5 stars. He critiqued, "From this episode, we can conclude that ''The X-Files definitively isn't about Mulder bonding with neanderthal women and calling them beautiful." Shearman described the installment as "a monster episode which can only be described as risible" and considered the most amusing part of the episode to be "the sorrowed anger in which Mulder reacts to the death of the cannibal cavegirl, shot dead in the woods with no dramatic build-up but just because the episode had reached its running time." Continued Shearman, "''The sub-plot of Scully going out on a date feels wrong, but it's at least entertaining .... For the rest of the episode we're left with a conservation story so clumsily obvious, even the mute neanderthal looks embarrassed. Moreover, after a series of episodes of cover-ups for national security, we're given a tale of police obstruction motivated by wanting to preserve the casino tourist trade. It's hard to care about, even harder to keep a straight face." *After the making of this episode, the hiring of location scouts for The X-Files was permitted. (X Marks the Spot (On Location with The X-Files), p. 35) Cast and Characters *Jersey Devil actress Claire Stansfield was cast in this episode on the recommendation of Mulder actor David Duchovny, the two being friends beforehand. Duchovny made the suggestion upon reading the episode's script (offering the recommendation to Chris Carter). (TV Zone Special #21, p. 24) The cast and crew who worked on the installment, including Stansfield, thought of the production as just another job, as very few people had heard about The X-Files. "We had no idea it was going to be as huge as it was," she remembered. "For me it was really just a great vacation and getting to hang out with David." ( , p. 9) Stansfield was ultimately pleased with the installment, remarking, "They did a really good job in the way that they wrote and edited the episode .... The nice thing, I think, that you get from the episode is how David's character of Mulder sympathizes with her .... You just can't help but like it, or her." (TV Zone Special #21, p. 24) *This episode was one of a few, randomly arranged near the start of the series, wherein Gillian Anderson struggled to find her voice and her rhythm with the stories. Anderson ultimately felt uncomfortable with re-watching scenes of herself as Scully, delivering lines of dialogue in a manner the actress felt was too cocky for her character. (The Complete X-Files: Behind the Series, the Myths and the Movies, p. 40) On the other hand, Claire Stansfield found Anderson was – during their brief opportunity to work together – extremely welcoming and supportive towards her. "Gillian embraced the whole situation," Stansfield observed, "and really made me feel very comfortable." (TV Zone Special #21, p. 24)